


an ex-airman and a veterinarian

by justsomejerk



Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex Finds a Kitten and a Date, Alternate Universe, Bisexual Kyle Valenti, Canon Disabled Character, Fluff, Kyle is A Veterinarian, M/M, Meet-Cute, They're both awkward, They're in Montreal Because I Say So
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 16:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21395191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsomejerk/pseuds/justsomejerk
Summary: During Alex's first winter in Montreal, he finds a shivering kitten trapped in the snow and it leads him to the hottest veterinarian he's ever met.
Relationships: Alex Manes/Kyle Valenti
Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542472
Comments: 11
Kudos: 45





	an ex-airman and a veterinarian

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mander3_swish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mander3_swish/gifts).

> Written from Tumblr prompt: "i found a cat shivering in the snow and you’re the cutest vet i’ve ever seen."
> 
> Unbeta'd. 
> 
> The prompt reminded me of winters in Montreal where the city loves piling all the snow on the sidewalks so nobody can walk anywhere. It's a thing.

Alex really thought he’d been prepared for winter in Montreal. He’d spent years in the heavy daytime heat and brisk nights of the desert - how bad could a winter in the so-called snowbelt of Canada really be?**  
**

Alex sighed loudly as his prosthetic sinks deeper and deeper into the snow outside his front door.

Pretty bad, it turns out.

It’s 6 am in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood where he somehow scored a ground-level apartment (as much as he liked the look of those very French spiral staircases dotting the streets around him, they weren’t practical considering his leg) and he needed to get to the office. It’s moderately interesting cybersecurity work and he could usually do it from home, but he’d left a few things at the office yesterday without checking the forecast first.

He shook his head to himself as he gingerly lifted his own thigh up, trying to place his leg in a more stable position buried in the snow while he contemplated just grabbing a Lyft for the measly 4 blocks that he can already predict had definitely not yet seen a snowplow. He’d been warned about the impassable sidewalks following any snowfall in the city, but somehow he imagined it was the standard grumbling about the inadequacies of local government. Looking up and seeing the massive knee-high snow stacked along the sidewalk as far as he could see, he realized how wrong he’d been.

The street was lit only by a single dim streetlight and the sun hadn’t broken over the mountain yet. The city felt deserted in a way Alex had grown to love. Morning twilight in Montreal strangely sometimes reminded him of the open space of New Mexico - empty and still in an eerie yet beautiful way.

He’s busy navigating his ride-share app on his phone when he tuned in to the strange mewling noises coming from nearby. He tried to ignore them and focus on getting to work, but the sound became more heartbreaking the longer it went on. He realized it sounded like a hurt animal.

It took him only a few moments to find the location from which the weeping sounds were originating. His apartment is on a corner, with a tiny park of concrete and graffiti separating his building from a hipster laundromat. That’s where he tracked down a ragged shivering mass of matted black fur whose cries would have surely given him war flashbacks without the years of therapy he’d endured since leaving the Air Force.

She was trapped on a park bench, buried halfway up her belly in snow, frost shimmering on her whiskers and ears, her wails deceptively loud for such a tiny body.

That’s when Alex realized he wasn’t getting to work this morning.

He was soon staggering through his front door, the wriggling, complaining kitten held up close to his chest, burrowing into his scarf. He collapsed on his couch and tried to tug her off to properly remove his soaked jeans, but she’d dug her claws into his wool coat and didn’t appear interested in retracting them, so instead he gently removed the coat itself and set it down tucked beside him with her safely balanced on top. Her wide glassy blue eyes stared up at him so long that he tentatively reached out to pet her with his thumb. She gently pushed back against his touch while her cries grew softer.

After drying her off with a towel and getting her wrapped up in a blanket, she was still shivering and had gone quiet. He was feeling quiet panic build up inside him and started Googling shivering kittens. He cursed under his breath when he realized all the results were contradictory. When he looked down into her watery eyes from where she was stubbornly perched on his lap, one paw gently reaching out to knead just where his stump ended, he decided in a moment of utter helplessness that he had to bring her to a veterinarian.

It was shortly past 7am when he arrived at the vet’s office with the little black furball wrapped in a fleece blanket and poking her head out of a shallow cloth shopping bag he was carrying close to his chest, if only because when he pulled it away she started shrieking in agitation.

“I called earlier about the kitten I found. She- I mean, I don’t know if she’s a she, that’s just what I’ve been, uh, calling her-” Alex stopped short when he looked up to see the person standing behind the counter and found himself face-to-face with the most beautiful man he’d ever seen.

“Uh.” Alex tried to remember what else he should be saying, but the man is looking him in the eye with a concerned but slightly bemused expression, brown eyes crinkled and cheekbones sharp enough to shave through the days-old stubble Alex had been neglecting. His sky-blue scrubs are the same shapeless kind all medical professionals wear, but they somehow look _good_ on him. He is suddenly keenly aware that he’d pulled on ratty sweatpants and a faded Air Force t-shirt in his rush to get into his Lyft and get his fragile new charge checked out by a professional.

The man came around the counter and held out his arms. “Want me to take her off your hands?” His eyes were deep brown and Alex felt a sudden urge to just melt into them. A split second supercut ran through his mind - his amazingly hot new vet boyfriend sinking to his knees in a dim bedroom while Alex stands over him, hungry hands crawling up his thighs, those bright eyes staring up at him, pleading.

_Jesus Christ, get a grip_. Alex has always had incredible self-control. It’s a point of pride, really. The only person who has ever thrown him off-balance like this was his ex-boyfriend Michael.

And now apparently _this_ guy.

He had his head ducked down level with the kitten, who had started crying again and he glanced up at Alex with a friendly smile. Alex quickly pulled her out of the bag, handing the mass of wriggling limbs over to the man who had taken up the mantle of his new object of fantasy in a mere seven seconds. Alex felt a jolt in his stomach when he saw the fond way this grown man looked down at the mottled and not-particularly-cute stray he’d dragged into his office.

“I’m Dr. Kyle Valenti. My receptionist told me the story. I’m sure this girl is perfectly fine but let’s go check her out. What’s your name?”

“Uh, Alex. Alex Manes.” He followed slowly behind as they proceeded into an office. He did his best not to let his eyes linger on the man’s perfectly sculpted ass as he bent over to grab something from a low cupboard.

As the vet got to work checking out the kitten, he started making small talk about jobs, the snow, pets. Alex did his best to focus on the words and not on the distracting shape of his rosy lips. Unlike his own, his lips didn’t look at all chapped from the frigid cold and wind. They looked kissable as hell, and Alex wanted to know how perfectly they’d feel pressed into his own.

“So, that’s not a Montreal accent, is it?”

“Uh, no. I’m actually from New Mexico.”

Kyle looked up at him. “Small world, me too! Raised in Santa Fe. You?” The kitten cried out, seemingly at the sudden lack of attention.

“Roswell.”

“Wow. I was actually born there, but my mom got a job with the police force in Santa Fe when I was a few months old, so we moved.” Kyle smiled at him in an almost familiar way. Alex suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu settle over him, like he’d seen that crooked grin and the sharp but kind glint in this man’s eyes a thousand times before. “Do you miss the desert?”

Alex shifted his hips and tried to subtly lean on the counter behind him without revealing how sore he is from his short time navigating the thick snow. “Honestly? Not really. I spent seven years in the Air Force going back and forth between Roswell and the Middle East. I’ve seen enough desert. Plus, I speak great French, which makes picking up Francophone guys way easier.” Alex blanched at his own awkward attempt at dropping his sexuality casually into the conversation. This hot vet definitely didn’t want to hear about his barely-there attempts at dating in the four months he’d lived in Montreal. “Uh, what about you?”

Kyle is letting the kitten nip at his forefinger as he smiled good-naturedly at her. “Besides my parents, I miss the sunsets. Nothing will ever match a New Mexico sunset.” He broke eye contact to pick up a clipboard and started writing, motioning to Alex to grab the kitten before she stumbled her way off the table and he made his way over to her. After a few moments of silence, Kyle added, “Except maybe New Mexico men.”

Alex froze in the middle of petting the purring furball who immediately began headbutting his chest. He thought he’d misheard. It wasn’t exactly the smoothest line, which was a bit jarring coming from such a perfect physical specimen.

Kyle peeked up from his clipboard. “That was pretty bad, wasn’t it?” He was smiling, the edge of flirtation now clear in his voice.

“I’ve heard worse. I’ve certainly said worse myself. Sometimes in French even.” Alex allowed himself to shoot a smile over at the blushing man across from him.

“Well, I haven’t had my coffee yet. Apparently my unprofessional attempts at flirting with my patients are clumsy pre-coffee.” His eyes were shining as he spoke.

Alex swallowed. “Technically the cat is your patient, so it would only be unprofessional if you were flirting with her. And.. I like clumsy. It’s nice to know you have flaws despite committing your life to healing animals while also looking like _that_.”

“Well, she’s definitely not the one I’d like to take out on a date.”

Alex realized he was smiling wider than he had in a long time.

And also that they’d been holding eye contact for way too long. They both looked away at the same time, each laughing softly to themselves.

With increased confidence despite his sloppy early-morning appearance, Alex said: “Well, I’m going to need you to keep me informed on how this little girl is doing, so I think you’re actually required to take me out for updates.”

Kyle’s smile was blinding. “Good. And, she’s doing fine. She was cold and wet, I would assume abandoned. Possibly the runt of her litter, but perfectly healthy. She looks to be only two to three weeks old and she’s not chipped. Plus, she’s grown attached.” He bobbed his head towards the kitten clinging to Alex’s chest, curled up in the crook of his arm, occasionally swiping a paw over her own face and yawning.

He smiled down at her. “That’s the first time she’s slept since I found her.”

Kyle smiled wryly. “I’ll get you a carrier.” He rested a hand on Alex’s arm for a beat and flicked his eyes down to gaze at his lips for just long enough to make his intentions unmistakable, and breezed out of the room.

Alex took a deep breath and followed him out into the lobby. After taking care of payment and the necessary supplies he’ll need to care for his new daughter, the receptionist disappeared and he and Kyle were waiting together for his ride.

“So you have my number. You should text me.”

“I will. I _definitely_ will.” Kyle bit his lip as he said it, and Alex put his self-control to the test stopping himself from throwing everything in his hands to the ground (except the kitten, he definitely would have set her down gently) and shoving him against a wall to see what his lips felt like on his, what his tongue felt like inside his mouth, where his hands would roam and how firm his touch would be.

As he leaned in for a gentler first kiss than his fantasy version, his phone dinged. His ride was here.

Kyle pressed a hand into Alex’s chest and smiled. Alex decided in that moment it’s a smile he would never get tired of seeing. “I’ll help you get this stuff into the car.”

When they’d shoved everything into the backseat, Alex clutched the carrier at his side and cast around for something clever to say before getting into the car.

Kyle saved him by leaning into his space, gently taking his head in his hands and kissing him softly. Alex barely had time to react, let alone reach out to pull Kyle in by the waist and deepen the kiss before the man broke away, sweeping a thumb over Alex’s cheek once before dropping his hands. “I’ll talk to you soon, Alex Manes.”

He felt so punch-drunk from that single brief kiss, he doesn’t remember if he even responded before stumbling into the car, a delirious smile on his face.

The driver must have greeted him and asked him the question a couple times before Alex clued in and asked him to repeat himself. “What’s the cat’s name?”

“Uh, I don’t know yet.” Alex responded. But he did know. He’d decided when he got in the car.

Her name was Bisou.


End file.
